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Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Limbaugh’s skepticism of the White House narrative regarding the chemical weapons attack in Syria adds to the growing list of people who believe the attack to be a staged false flag event.

Talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh joins a long list of credible experts, who see evidence that the Obama administration helped staged the chemical weapons attack with in Syria with Al-Qaeda to frame the Assad regime.

This list now includes Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Rand Paul and Jerome Corsi.

And Lynda and Supertradmum, who said this before all of those above--duh. Is it because we are sitting in Europe that we can see things more clearly than the Americans? Is it that we get real news, or what....?

One can look at the comments on the last post in this series, but I shall continue answering a complicated question here. Remember I said that the two most common reasons for misbehaving as this age, outside a physical illness, would be that the child is bored from either not being stimulated enough or over stimulation with tv. computer, noise, too much parental running around. Obedience comes right about the age of two and a half to three.

This post will help with obedience. This is a continuation of a question and comment begun in comments on the last post on home schooling advice. First of all, this author has done a great job synthesizing Montessori on the will.

The will, as Montessori observed, is best divided into three parts.

The first part of the will occurs for the child before three years of age when the child is unable to ‘obey‘ unless what is asked corresponds to one of his/her vital urges. The child is not capable of making a decision to ‘obey.’

The second level of the will shows us that the child can obey when told to do something, and most of the time will in order to please the adult. Many teachers stopped here with ‘blind obedience’. But Montessori believes, we as Directresses, should take the will to the third level.

The third level of the will obedience has been internalized and the discipline has become self-discipline or self-guided. The child sees clearly the value of the obedience. This type of obedience is called ‘joyful obedience‘ by Maria Montessori. With this third level of the will also comes elf-respect and consequently respect for others.

The child then is free to develop within an environment of self-respecting individuals who build a community with one another.

And, as I posted before, here is an outline of deviancie, which must be corrected asasp. Here is the list of deviancies and why from here.Dr. Montessori classified deviations in two categories: deliberate (adult-fostered) and non-deliberate (those not fostered by adults). Deliberate deviations are caused by the lack of purposeful activities in the home and/or school environment. These children feel the need to be constantly entertained. They are continually bouncing between toys, TV, and computer time to alleviate boredom, but nothing holds their interest for very long. These children may also have the tendency to cling to a parent or older sibling well beyond the developmental plane of letting go. This is because their independence has been denied and they are unable to recognize themselves as a separate person.

There are several deviations that are not fostered by adults and are often seen as "normal" stages of development. Dr. Montessori referred to these as deviations as fugues and barriers (The Secret of Childhood) and deviations that are demonstrated by the strong and the weak (The Absorbent Mind).

Fugues – A fugue is when a child "runs away" from a task. While they are never still, they lack purpose. They begin a work, leave it unfinished, and rush to another.

Barriers – A barrier is a deviation which is strong enough to keep a child from engaging in his surroundings. It may be disguised as disobedience or obstinacy. It manifests itself as dependence, possessiveness, power struggles, feelings of inferiority, fear, lying, and psychosomatic illness.

Strong – Being strong means being able to overcome obstacles. When children are not strong, they are prone to aggression, violence, rage, insubordination. They can be destructive and unable to concentrate. They are termed naughty, disobedient. Dr. Montessori observed that "They have difficulty in coordinating their hands. They are generally noisy, unkind, and often greedy at the table."

Weak – Children who are demonstrating a deviation in the weak give in to unfavorable conditions. They cry easily, are passive, manipulative, and easily bored. Rather than do something for themselves, they exert effort in trying to get others to do it for them. They are afraid of the world around them and cling to adults

So how is an adult to help a child overcome these deviations and help them along the path to normalization? Dr. Montessori stated that first the Montessori teacher must practice patience rather than anger. An adult who is impatient or angry cannot build confidence or independence in a child. She recommended interrupting the misbehavior because it is an obstacle to development, and to offer interesting and purposeful activities to re-channel that energy in a productive way. She believed the only way to re-direct misbehavior was to return to the work cycle. Once the child has returned to a state of normalcy, the adult must not interrupt while the child is focused and concentrating. By observing and protecting those moments, they will become more frequent and the child will not have to deviate as much. His energy will have found a new outlet in his work.http://montessoritraining.blogspot.ie/2008/04/deviations-in-normalization-process.html#.UiW7TTasim5

Also read this and this if you want more help with deviancies and order in the home schooling classroom, or serious disobedience.

I want to use this last post in this series to answer questions. So please ask. Thanks for following. And here are some statistics for those who still have not decided....

Dr. Gary Knowles (1991) studied more than 1,000 Michigan adults who had been homeschooled.A full 94% said that homeschool helped prepare them to be independent persons, and 79% said that it helped them to interact with those from other levels of society.

Dr. Delahooke (1986) showed that homeschooled students are significantly less peer dependent.

Dr. Montgomery (1989) showed that homeschooled students are just as active in extracurricular activities that promote leadership as were privately-schooled students.

Andrews University in Michigan showed that the average home schooled student scored in the top third of the PIERS-HARRIS SELF CONCEPT SCALE, a standard test of social adjustment, and over half scored in the top 10 percent.

Thomas C. Smedley used The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale as a diagnostic tool to assess the competence and/or "mental age" of a subject.The mean Adaptive Behavior Composite score of 115.55 for the home schooled children puts them in the top 16%! In terms of the socialization subcategory score, the home schooled students rank in the top 27%.

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. shared his study of adults who were home schooled in his book "Home Educated and Now Adults."He interviewed 5,254 people who were home schooled for 7 or more years, ranging in age from 16-69 with 74% of them being age 18-24.He got his data for the general U.S. population statistics from the National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey, filtering it by ages 16-29

Moving to the fourth characteristic of the normalized child, one see that social qualities come naturally and the virtues are strengthened. A child learns confidence through her work, on her own, accomplishing all the things in the curriculum. That confidence breeds generosity and kindness. Very young children do not need a lot of sociability, especially if they have siblings. This is huge, deviant idea not based on the 40 years of research done by Montessori on the very young child. The child needs time to herself, for work and reflection, and even play. Go back to the earlier posts and the graphs on the sensitive periods.

The child who is respected in her love of learning, her time of concentration, and her self-discipline, will allow other children to do the same, recognizing their needs. Sociability comes naturally. Now, if a home schooling parent wants to bring their child to swimming class or exercise class to be with others, this does not have to be done until a later time. I had coffee mornings in my house and with a round robin plan so that all the mums took turns, and my son, who was being home schooled, would sometimes leave the group and go do his Montessori work. It was so cute and so predicable.

However, by age four and a half, socializing becomes a real need, or even at five, but really it is not necessary before that age.

The modern world is full of lies begun by the socialists and communists as what the child really needs. Their ideologies form deviant people who are only created to be sheep and not thinking members of a vibrant society. One reason why every Pope has condemned socialism since 1845 are the false teachings concerning the formation and respect of the individual. You can go to my other posts on that; but the over-socialization of the child creates deviancies and does not allow for the natural growth of the other three marks of the normalized child. In a big family, the toddler is well-socialized, and this newish idea that a toddler needs other toddlers is not based on research but ideology.

Most mothers want socialization themselves if they only have one or two children and they push this for their own needs, which can be very detrimental to the growth of the child. A parent knows by instinct when the child needs sociability. And the virtues are there because of the other three stages. This one builds on the other three.

(4) Sociability. There is only one specimen of each object, and if a piece is in use when another child wants it, the latter—if he is normalized—will wait for it to be released. Important social qualities derive from this. The child comes to see that he must respect the work of others, not because someone has said he must, but because this is a reality that he meets in his daily experience.(The Absorbent Mind, p. 223).And I add; virtues of kindness, generosity, patience, , mercy, humility, compassion, forgiveness, selflessness, justice, charity, forbearance, integrity, bravery, love, faith, hope.I have witnessed rooms of children working separately quite happily, then stopping for songs or prayers, as in the schedule. Do not ignore the needs of your toddler because of the needs of the older children. That stage forms her for life. To be continued....

Continuing this series, I return to the third category of the normalized child and add the virtues learned through self-discipline.

Now, once the child has learned the home schooling procedure for the day, such as making the bed, eating breakfast, maybe daily Mass, morning prayers and the set-up for work, this should happen automatically. One of the biggest problems in the teaching or rather the EMERGENCE of self-discipline, is the lack of discipline in the parents.

Because I had Montessori training, and because I had worked and taught for years before getting married and having a child, I perhaps was use to discipline more than some. Also, I had been in a strict lay community for seven years.

In addition, I am an INTJ as we are naturally prone to schedules and self-motivation. But, so are ALL children.

These virtues, which come in the setting up and following of daily routine, form character.

I cannot imagine a parent who does not want to see strong self-discipline in the children. Unthinkable for a Catholic is a lack of discipline, and interior discipline can be formed with little exterior punishment. Here is an example from another site, to which I added my own experiences

Preschool Daily Schedules

0830-0915 morning greetings, prayers, Mass

& free work; several mornings we went to the markets, so the day started later

0915-1030 Montessori lessons

1030-1045 morning snack

1045-1130 individual job which means work on one's own

1130-1200 circle time or exercises, dancing, singing with movement

1200-1220 outdoor play time and does not have to be complicated

1220-1300 hand wash, lunch time; child helps with prep and clean up

1300-1400 art, craft, story time, such as painting, clay work, like making of dioramas for dinosaurs, etc.

1400-1530 nap time but my son never napped to we just did more things; the day ended with afternoon tea

The key is order. Order in the house, the schedule and so one creates or rather, helps bring out the natural self-discipline.

Here is the huge change in perspective parents need for home schooling. All of these traits, including self-discipline come from within if the environment allows this natural progress.

Think about this. Too many parents think that discipline is merely exterior. No, it is primarily interior, and at an early age. The problem is not the child, but the adults raising the child.

I see this from my window in Dublin. I cannot believe that parents are outside talking to each other and their toddlers are running around the parking lot at 9:30 at night. I cannot believe that some parents tell me they have no schedules for their toddlers. This is against nature, and the parents are not cooperating with either nature or grace.

Children thrive with boundaries, and psychological studies have proven that children with boundaries are happier, more secure, and more confident than those who have no schedules, no rules, no guidance. Here is that third category below, and the virtues which flow from self-discipline.

This can happen early, as early as three to three and a half.

Make a schedule and keep to it. If you need help with schedule making, just ask me to help. One can schedule all the children in the home school to do those separately and partly together. Remember that the very young child wants and needs to work alone.

3) Self-discipline

After concentration will come perseverance . . . It marks the beginning of yet another stage in character formation . . . It is the ability to carry through what he has begun. The children in our schools choose their work freely, and show this power unmistakably. They practice it daily for years.(The Absorbent Mind p. 217)

The child experiences an inner peace and confidence, which is natural and enhanced by grace. The normal rules of the home schooling environment which should be consistent and repeated daily, lead to this self-discipline.

One of the most gratifying things which ever happened to me was the ability to walk outside my classrooms of high school students and let them continue Socratic discussion without me.In fact, the director of one of the schools, use to purposefully bring potential parents to my door and then call me out into the hallway.

He would then merely ask the parent to watch the dynamic in the room.Students carried on with their interest and discussion in, for example, Xenophon's The Persian Expedition, or the history of the heresies in my Isms class, or Civil War poetry, or Marx's Das Kapital. The reason why the students would continue without me is that they had discovered the marks of the normalized child within themselves-love of learning, concentration, self-discipline,and the last discussed in the next post, sociability. What parent would not want to see junior high boys discussing Antigone for two hours at an open house (YES, 11, 12 and 13 year olds), and then hearing them spontaneously saying at the end that they wanted to have summer school to finish the trilogy in order to go back and study the other two plays of Sophocles in the cycle. A good teacher teaches children how to learn on their own and how to be excited about the subjects. All parents can do this and they, too, will be rewarded by the shared excitement.

These are not miracles, but normal for children and young persons who are allowed to learn and love God through learning. The virtues literally pour out of the self-discipline.To be continued....

Leon Bloy

Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma

The Church Must Not Be Defensive

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Too many Church leaders do not think, or do not think as Catholics

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GUILD PRAYER

God our Father, source of life and freedom, through Your Holy Spirit you gave the Carmelite, Titus Brandsma the courage to affirm human dignity even in the midst of suffering and degrading persecution.

Grant us that same spirit so that, in refusing all compromise with error we may always and everywhere give coherent witness to Your abiding presence among us.